Lester: "It wasn't good enough."

Chesterfield manager Jack Lester says that the goals conceded in last night’s 2-1 defeat at Exeter City, were down to players not doing their jobs.

Jayden Stockley opened the scoring for the Grecians at St James’ Park, in the 39th minute, when he rose highest to head a cross past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale. Before an Alex Whitmore own goal doubled the hosts lead in the second half. And while Andy Kellett scored from a well worked move in the closing stages, it was nothing more than a consolation.

Speaking exclusively to iFollow after the match, Lester said: “We’ve given players specific roles and they’ve not done them.

“It was the same as the last game, with 'I’m sorry I forgot' or 'I didn’t do my job' it wasn’t good enough.

“I thought we were ok between both boxes for the majority of it, but the game is won in both boxes and that’s been the story of recent times.”

Lester rung the changes from last Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Mansfield Town, making five in total, with Whitmore, Brad Barry, Sid Nelson, Louis Dodds and Chris O’Grady coming into the XI.

Those changes meant a change in formation, with the Spireites adopting a 3-5-2 for the first time during Lester’s reign.

“We wanted to get two strikers up the pitch,” he explained. “We’ve not had much joy off the wingers in recent weeks, so we changed our formation and gave people a chance to impress.

“We need people to score goals and create goals, we were hoping that we’d get some of that, but we didn’t really get enough securing of the ball from the front two, movement in behind or stretching the play.

Club captain Ian Evatt missed out in Devon, and Lester hopes to have the central defender available for the trip to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday, 3pm.

Drew Talbot was an unused substitute at Exeter, with his absence surprising many of the Town faithful, though Lester explained that his omission was a tactical one.

He said: “It was the most he’s played for a couple of years, what with his hamstring. And I think that Bradley is a bit more athletic than Drew.

“Wing back is a tough role, you have to make the far post in both boxes, attacking and defending, we felt Brad would be more suited to that role.”

The Spireites head into Saturday’s match at the New Lawn, seven points adrift of Sky Bet League Two safety, and Lester has hinted that the team selected will have a similar look to the one picked for St James’ Park.

“We’ve been doing that for a little while, there’s not a game that we’ve not tried to win, we just have to get three wins,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lester praised the effort of the 134 Town supporters who made the long trip to Devon, and also spoke of his disappointment that the team could not give them more for their efforts.

He added: “It was a fantastic effort and we spoke before about a lot of people making a big journey, and that you must make them proud. But we didn’t tonight.”